NASA Daily News Summary 16 Mar 2000

NASA Daily News Summary

For Release:  Mar. 16, 2000

Media Advisory m00-52

SUMMARY
NEWS RELEASES:
NASA SPACECRAFT TO STUDY IMPACT OF MAGNETIC STORMS

YUKON METEORITE MAY PROVIDE “NEW WINDOW INTO THE UNIVERSE”
VIDEO:
VIDEO FILE:
ITEM 1 – YUKON METEORITE DISCOVERED – JSC

ITEM 2 – INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION REPAIR KIT -MSFC (REPLAY)
LIVE TELEVISION EVENTS THIS WEEK
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LIVE TELEVISION EVENTS THIS WEEK
March 16, Thursday

– 1:00 – 3:00 pm – FY2001 Budget Posture Hearing before the House

  Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on VA-HUD-Independent

  Agencies (recorded 3/15/00) – HQ

– 4:30 – 7:00 pm – KC-135 Student Campaign Live News Interviews

  – JSC
March 17, Friday

– 9:00 am – Noon – FY2001 Human Space Flight Budget Hearing before

  the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics (replay from

  3/16/00) – HQ

– 1:00 – 6:00 pm – Johnson Space Center Regional First Robotics

  Competition – Astro Arena, Houston, TX (direct uplink to NTV)
March 18, Saturday

– 8:00 am – 6:00 pm – Langley Research Center Eastern Regional

  First Robotics Competition – Virginia Commonwealth University,

  Richmond, VA (direct uplink to NTV)
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NEWS RELEASES:
NASA SPACECRAFT TO STUDY IMPACT OF MAGNETIC STORMS 
     NASA is about to launch the first spacecraft dedicated to

imaging the Earth’s magnetosphere — an invisible magnetic field

surrounding the planet that is strongly influenced by the solar

wind.  A Delta II 7326 rocket is scheduled to launch the Imager

for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration, or IMAGE, satellite

into orbit March 25 from the Western Range at Vandenberg Air Force

Base, CA.  The eight-minute launch window for IMAGE opens at 3:35

p.m. EST (12:35 p.m. PST). IMAGE is the first of its kind,

designed to actually “see” most of the major charged-particle

systems in the space surrounding Earth.  
Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC:  Dolores Beasley

(Phone 202/358-1753).

Contact at Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD:  Susan

Hendrix (Phone: 301/286-7745).
For full text, see:

ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2000/00-040.txt 
————–
YUKON METEORITE MAY PROVIDE “NEW WINDOW INTO THE UNIVERSE”
     A meteorite that exploded over a remote area of northwest

Canada in January may offer “a new window into the universe before

the solar system was created,” said a NASA scientist who has begun

analyzing some of the meteorite fragments.  The very primitive

composition and pristine condition of the 4.5-billion-year-old

meteorite “offers us a snapshot of the original composition of the

entire solar system before the planets formed,” said Dr. Michael

Zolensky, a cosmic mineralogist at NASA’s Johnson Space Center

(JSC) in Houston.  “It tells us what the initial materials were

like that went into making up the Earth, the Moon and the Sun.”

The age of the solar system is about 4.5 billion years.
Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC:  Donald Savage

(Phone 202/358-1547).

Contact at Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX ;  Ann Hutchison

(Phone:  281/483-5111).

Contact at Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa, ON:  Jean-Claude

Paradis (Phone:  613/992-9426).
For full text, see:

ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2000/00-041.txt 
—————————–
If NASA issues any news releases later today, we will e-

mail summaries and Internet URLs to this list.
Index of 2000 NASA News Releases:

http://www.nasa.gov/releases/2000/index.html
Index of 1999 NASA News Releases:

http://www.nasa.gov/releases/1999/index.html
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VIDEO:
Unless otherwise noted, ALL TIMES ARE EASTERN.
ANY CHANGES TO THE VIDEO LINE-UP WILL APPEAR ON THE NASA VIDEO

FILE ADVISORY ON THE WEB AT

ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/tv-advisory/nasa-tv.txt

WE UPDATE THE ADVISORY THROUGHOUT THE DAY.
The NASA Video File normally airs at noon, 3 p.m., 6 p.m., 9 p.m.

and midnight Eastern Time.
NASA Television is available on GE-2, transponder 9C at 85 degrees

West longitude, with vertical polarization. Frequency is on 3880.0

megahertz, with audio on 6.8 megahertz.
Refer general questions about the video file to NASA Headquarters,

Washington, DC: Ray Castillo, 202/358-4555, or Fred Brown,

202/358-0713, fred.brown@hq.nasa.gov
During Space Shuttle missions, the full NASA TV schedule will

continue to be posted at:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/nasatv/schedule.html
For general information about NASA TV see:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv/
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Contract Awards
Contract awards are posted to the NASA Acquisition information

Service Web site: http://procurement.nasa.gov/EPS/award.html
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end of daily news summary